World Of Entertainment

Sale and Purchase

Videos on Demand

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The Lola T70 was built for sports car racing, popular in the mid to late 1960s. Developed by Lola Cars in 1965 in Great Britain, the T70 was made for endurance racing. Early success came when Walt Hansgen won the Monterey Grand Prix, at Laguna Seca, on October 17, 1965, driving John Mecom's Lola T70-Ford.[1]

In 1966, the open-cockpit Mk II version with a Chevrolet V8 engine was an entry in the CanAm series, winning five of six races during the year. In 1967, the T70 raced again but only won one race, outpowered by the newer McLaren made cars. Despite its short-lived success in the CanAm series, the T70 was quite popular, with more than 100 examples of the vehicle being built in 3 versions. The first version, besides the original factory car, was the open-roofed Mk II, joined by the Coupé-version Mk III, and a slightly updated version, the Mk IIIB. The T70 was replaced in the CanAm by the lighter, stronger Lola T160.

An Aston Martin engined coupe bodied T70 was entered by Lola at Le Mans in 1967, but even with drivers such as John Surtees, the car failed to deliver. The Aston Martin V8 engine failed after short runs, characterised by poor power and overheating, problems that were found to be due to a lack of development. In turn, the lack of development was attributed to an overly tight budget.

During the filming of Steve McQueen's "Le Mans", Lola chassis were sacrificed, disguised with bodywork of the Porsche and Ferrari that starred in the film. T70s also appear, albeit modified, in George Lucas' first commercial film, THX-1138.